Behind the Door
by Spark of Evening's Blossom
Summary: There is a place. It's in the house on Ashburn, it's in the closet after dark, it's everywhere. What happens when five people get trapped there, they discover that it's more than just fun and games. Rated T for some violence.
1. Prologue 1

London, August 29th, 20:28

Jamie Frank sighed. Her kindergarten class had been terrible that day. Marshall kept stealing Amy's red wooden block, Kevin cried nonstop about not having his 'owsses', God knows what that was, and the rest of the children had been a pain in some way or another. In short, it had been a miserable day, and on top of that the principal had announced that budget cuts had forced him to decrease salaries. By a lot.

She twisted her hand and glanced at her mother-of-pearl watch. It was getting late, and her husband Douglas would be waiting for her at home. Jamie gathered up her paperwork, tossing it into her briefcase, and looked outside. A slight wind was picking up the crisp orange and red leaves, sweeping them off into the distance. It was at that time when fall shed its last barrier of leaves and winter glided in under the cover of elongated nights. A slight thrum of rain had begun. Jamie noted that it was the second full moon of the month; a blue moon.

She reached in the drawer of her desk for two things; some pills to cope with her pounding headache and the keys to her classroom. Jamie opened up the water bottle that was sitting on the edge of her desk and downed the pill. Almost immediately she began to feel drowsy and her headache started to slip away. Jamie smiled and grabbed her briefcase and coat, slipping the garment on as she walked towards the door. She flipped the light switches and her classroom's lights died. The hallway lights were on and one of the janitors, wearing the standard blue uniform, was whistling softly. From a connecting hallway, another one with a thin mustache appeared. He flashed Jamie a smile, revealing a crooked tooth.

"Hello darlin'." Jamie rolled her eyes a bit and locked the door before tartly replying, "Hi." Her sugar-level had hit rock-bottom, and her patience had quickly followed its footsteps. All Jamie wanted was to walk home to her apartment a few streets over and find Douglas preparing a hot soup.

She quickly slipped the keys into her bag and started walking down the hall. The clicking of her stiletto heels echoed up and down the silent halls. All of the other teachers had left and locked their classroom doors, shutting off their lights.

The hallway lights flickered.

Jamie paused and glanced around. The power couldn't have gone out; the wind wasn't strong enough and it wasn't raining hard enough. She sighed and kept walking, shaking her head to fling her thoughts and puzzlements away.

The lights flickered again.

This time Jamie stopped and looked back. The janitors were gone.

The hallway lights kept flickering.

A shiver of fear slipped down her spine. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, and Jamie quickened her pace to a steady jog. The hallway twisted to the left. Jamie knew for a fact that the fire escape was closer than the backdoor, which she usually took out, but some part of her brain was screaming for her to _get out quickly_.

The lights were flickering out for longer periods of time now, five to ten seconds.

Jamie started breathing heavily, sweat crowding above her brow, and her pace had become a full-out run. Behind every on of her steps was another beat, another echo accompanying hers. Jamie wasn't sure if it was just the lights flickering on and off causing her paranoia, or if it was real, but she wasn't going to take any chances. If it was real, then the footsteps were getting louder. Getting closer.

Jamie started to hyperventilate, but the fire escape was in sight so she started to relax a bit, but kept her pace. She braced her arms and slammed into the fire escape door, opening it. The fire escape stayed open, an automatic stopper kicking in. Jamie glanced backwards and a throwing-up/heart-leaping-into-throat sensation occurred. A dark figure was running down the hall, which was now dark. Jamie could see the outline of something gripped in his hand, and she wasn't going to stick around long enough for her to find out.

Jamie ran. The man—or woman—who was following her was catching up. The rain was soaking through her green cashmere sweater, and it would surely be ruined when she got home. _If _she got home.

Jamie's pursuer was very close now, and Jamie's muscles were screaming. Hot pain spiked through her limbs and a fire burned in her throat. The stilettos were restricting her running. Jamie desperately looked around, and from the corner of her eye, she saw the silhouette of a charming little house. An idea wormed its way through the fright and Jamie skidded to a stop, her balance being thrown from one side to the other, and fell over. The rain unleashed a new fury, pouring down faster and harder.

Jamie was about to get up, but she felt something hit her stocking-clad leg, and she sharply inhaled, tensing in fear. The person swore sharply, and Jamie was now sure that her pursuer was a man. He got up, slipping a bit on the slick road. The moon was covered by rainclouds, making it hard to see. Then he started running towards the direction of where he thought Jamie had gone. He ran with a limp.

Jamie closed her eyes and silently thanked God. She lay on the pavement, listening to the rain falling on and around her, waiting for her breathing to even out, recounting the events of the night.

A few minutes later, Jamie had gotten over the initial shock and started o focus on the facts. She didn't know where she was, and although she probably wasn't far from her apartment, it was dark and raining. She didn't have a place to stay, food to eat, nor water to drink. Jamie stood up and staggered over to the shop, her adrenaline rush completely faded out. Weariness and the effects of her pill had taken over and Jamie was about to crash. Even though she couldn't have run far, Jamie was still lost and she needed directions and, hopefully, a ride.

The windows were too dark to see through and she couldn't hear anyone inside_. _A flowery plaque hanging on the door announced 'Newly Grandparents!' Jamie sighed with relief and thanked God again. _Kind, understanding grandparents… Just what I need._

She was about to raise her hand to knock, but a small doorbell caught her eye. Jamie raised her hand and pressed it. A sharp ringing sound echoed throughout the shop and the lights flickered on. Jamie's patience-o-meter had gone into negatives. She angrily started pounding the doorbell.

"It's raining out here! Let me in!" Eventually she gave up. Tears started to snake down Jamie's turned around and slid down the rotting wood, her face in her hands and shoulders shaking from sobs. Jamie put her face in between her knees and started rocking back and forth, trying to control her crying. There was a creaking sound.

Jamie wiped her eyes and twisted around, elbowing her brief mental breakdown away. A harsh light greeted her eyes and Jamie had to blink rapidly a few times before her eyes got used to it. She got up and walked in, shielding her eyes.

The door closed behind her.

Jamie whirled around, but something caught her eye and she suddenly wasn't interested in the door. Something was wrong…

The door. There were no walls around the door It was just… a door. Standing in the middle of space. Jamie's eyes widened. She turned around, and her eyes bugged out even more, if that was possible. Standing in front of her was an old, rickety, creepy structure. A fully lit, powered amusement park.

"Bloody hell," Jamie breathed before fainting from shock.


	2. Prologue 2

Paris, August 29th, 21:28

April Graves sighed. On the lit screen of her up-to-date phone was an all-caps, angry text message from her mother ordering her to came home. She rolled her eyes. April felt something bang her elbow and she looked up. Her best friend Amy Chandler was looking curiously at her.

"So, what's that?" she asked, looking innocently up at her. April quickly secured the phone shut and slipped it into her small golden clutch, her mind running on double-time.

"It was, um… It was… my mother," April stammered, pushing a strand of red-blonde hair behind her ear.

"And…?" Amy inquired further. Her eyebrows furrowed in worry. "Is she okay? Did something happen to your father?" April smiled and put her hand on Amy's shoulder. Sometimes her best friend could be a bit emotional and a worry-wart.

"It's fine. My mother just said that I could have a few more hours here," April lied. Amy gave a big, heartfelt sigh of relief. She could also be a bit dramatic at times. "And since I can stay a bit longer… I'm thinking... the haunted house on Ashburn," April smiled deviously. April's eyebrows shot up.

"Are you sure? I mean, I've seen it and it's really scary. There are cobwebs and everything, I mean," Amy put her hand back on April's shoulder, "are you sure?" Worry laced her voice, making April feel a slight twinge of guilt, but a over-whelming sense of rebellion, which made her smile again.

April put Amy's favorite stuffed animal back in it's spot, nestled among her collection of purple pillows, and got off Amy's fluffy bed. Amy followed her lead and they both started putting on their shoes.

"Allons-y!"

April hands had started shaking about a quarter-mile away from their destination. Amy's older sister Jessica Chandler had a driver's license and offered to drive them. April used the word 'offered' tentatively, given that she had pretended not to see Amy give her older sister a long, heated argument in french (too fast for her to understand) and a look that killed while she was waiting for them in the car. The tiny european vehicle shuddered to a stop and Jessica turned around, raising one perfectly plucked eyebrow at Amy and April.

"Vous doivent departer!" Jessica commanded. April sighed. Besides April's teachers, Jessica was the only person who she knew spoke english but refused to talk in anything but french to her. Amy opened the door of her sister's car and both the fourteen-year-olds scrambled out. The second that April shut the door, the car screeched off into the distance, dust flying up everywhere.

April coughed and Amy helped untangle her filmy baby-pink scarf from April's earrings.

"Sorry about that," Amy apologized, trying not to rip her friend's expensive scarf. "Jessica's been a bit... moody lately." The pair finally managed to detach the two accessories. April gave an exasperated sigh, annoyed at Jessica, and turned around.

The old house was bigger than April remembered. When Amy first introduced it to her, it was on the way to a party and she remembered Amy insisting that her mother pull over. April recalled the shiver that ran down her spine from hearing the old house moan and listening to ghost stories about it. The most prominent story she remembered was about a crazy man who tried to move into the house. The story went that he had gone crazy inside. The day he died, he had run around screaming that the house was placed there by demons, and then he strung a rope onto the ledge of the house's roof and jumped off the railing, hanging himself.

There were cobwebs hanging from the roof, which had missing tiles. The house creaked and groaned, as if the light wind could push it over.

April slowly eased her way up the front steps onto the porch, scared that the fragile wood would give way underneath her. Dead plants littered the windows, which were boarded up. April looked back and saw Amy was wringing her hands with excitement and fear.

April reached up for the brass doorknob and slowly painfully twisted it. Adrenaline laced her bloodstream and she started to hyperventilate from it. April opened it just so she could slip in and turned. Her eyes reflexively snapped shut against the bright light that greeted her eyes. Before April got a look at what was causing the light, there was a loud bang. Every horror movie she could think of raced through her head and fear clawed at her brain. It was never good news when the door closes on its own. April yanked at the doorknob and rattled it fiercely, trying to open the door.

And that's when she realized that the door was just sitting there. Not attached to any creepy, rotting wood walls. April screamed.

There was a scraping sound and Amy flung the door open, tripping into April. The best friends tumbled onto the ground, sprawling onto each other. When they had both gotten over the initial shock of the fall, the two looking into the light. Amy's mouth hung open in surprise, ad April's was formed in a scream. There was a huge, running amusement park. Amy's forced herself to speak.

"There's an amusement park… And no one's running it, but all the rides are working… And we're supposed to be in a mansion… And—" Amy's eyes rolled back and she fainted. April screamed.


End file.
